darth bane

darth bane, born under the name of dessel, was the sith’ari and the dark lord of the sith responsible for creating the rule of two. born in 1026 bby, he was raised as a poor miner on the outer rim planet apatros. after killing a galactic republic ensign in a fight in 1003 bby, dessel was in danger of being arrested and imprisoned by the republic. with the help of his friend groshik, he escaped off-world to join the sith brotherhood of darkness. initially serving as a foot soldier in the gloom walkers unit, he was recognized as a force-sensitive, and taken to the sith academy on korriban. bane, as he had been christened, quickly became one of the best students at the academy before he lost his faith in the dark side of the force. though bane was able to regain his confidence in the dark side, he lost his trust in the brotherhood of darkness, believing it to be a flawed organization whose leader, skere kaan, was a coward and a fool. deserting the order, he went to the planet lehon and studied the holocron of darth revan, and, armed with new knowledge, helped destroy the brotherhood, allowing him to create his own sith order. he then inst-tuted a rule of two, which stated that there could be only two sith to avoid the infighting that had plagued the sith for millennia. he also took both the t-tle of darth and an apprentice named darth zannah.
the character of darth bane, and his rule of two, were created by george lucas as part of his backstory of the sith he developed for the prequel trilogy. bane was first mentioned in the phantom menace novel as the creator of the rule of two. in 2000, the essential chronology collated these events with the battle of ruusan mentioned in dark forces: jedi knight, creating a backstory further developed in jedi vs sith by darko macan and bane of the sith by kevin j. anderson. the new essential guide to characters and the new essential chronology provided more details, and the latter attempted to correct inconsistencies between jedi vs sith and bane of the sith.

in 2006, darth bane: path of destruction, written by drew karpyshyn was released. several of the details in it contradicted previous information about bane. another novel about darth bane, darth bane: rule of two, was released in 2007 and fixed some of the conflicting elements. part of the novel covers bane of the sith, while it also invents new history for bane and his apprentice. a third novel, darth bane: dynasty of evil, was released in 2009. each of these novels expanded on bane’s backstory, with dynasty of evil killing off the dark lord.